have the applicants complied fully with the conditions requisite to authorize the award of premiums.

Imperfect statements are in most cases submitted, but in no instance does the amount of crop obtained, or the process of cultivation, as stated by the applicant, seem to your committee to merit very high encomiums as serving to demonstrate the productiveness of our soil, the perfection of our mode of culture, or the adaptation of our climate to this class of crops.

The indifference of the farmers of Maine to this all-important branch of agriculture, can, in the judgment of your committee, be attributed to no other cause than the neglect of the agricultural societies in the State to offer premiums for the successful and extensive cultivation of root crops for winter feed for stock, commensurate with its importance.

No farmer can keep neat stock, or sheep, in good condition through our long and severe winters, on dry fodder alone; and it is susceptible of demonstration, that all kinds of stock may be carried through the winter in better condition, and at much less expense, with a generous daily supply of roots, than upon hay and grain only; while, at the same time, both the quantity and fertilizing qualities of the manure are increased.

It is an old axiom. "No cattle, no farm." The importation of guano, and the manufacture of superphosphates, can never do for the farmer what a full stock of well-fed and carefully-attended neat cattle, sheep and swine, will do.

Neither Professor Mapes, nor any or all other professors, can supersede Professor Nature in the production of fertilizers; and the more we encourage the natural production of stercoraceous substances, the better farmers we shall be, and the better farms we shall cultivate.

First premium to Nathan Redlon of China, for his crop of 418 bushels Jackson potatoes grown on two acres. His statement is as follows:

"My crop consisting of 418 bushels of 60 pounds to the bushel, was grown on two acres, being at the rate of 209 bushels to the acre. The soil upon which it grew was sandy loam; light color; depth of plowing eight inches; soil fine and light; subsoil sandy; about eight inches to the subsoil; taken up from pasture, broke up the 3d and 4th of May, 1859; about four cords of barnyard manure

put in the hills. Planted from the 7th to the 10th of May; planted nine bushels of small Jackson potatoes, cut once. June 22d, put on two bushels plaster; hoed June 27th, 28th and 29th; harvested in September."

Second premium to William Grinnell of Exeter, for 417 bushels on two acres. Mr. Grinnell's statement was as follows:

"My crop consisting of 417 bushels of 60 pounds to the bushel, was grown on two acres, being at the rate of 208 bushels to the acre. The soil upon which it grew was a gravelly loam, part of yellowish color and part of a brownish color; soil deep; subsoil full of small stones. The soil was in poor condition, yielding about five hundred of hay the previous season; not much sward on it; broke up the fore part of May; once harrowed, once cultivated with an ox cultivator; furrowed rows 2 feet apart, hills 14 feet apart; planted the 10th of May; eight bushels seed per acre; seed known on the Penobscot as the Orono or Reed potato; plaster was sprinkled on the seed when it was cut, and one bushel per acre put on the tops at hoeing time."

REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON TRIAL OF PLOWS.

The number of plows entered for this trial was very large, numbering about forty, and embracing a fine display of mechanical skill, some of them being implements of great excellence.

The following had been previously adopted and published by the Trustees:

"The following premiums will be awarded on plows, open to competitors out of the State:

implement for deep and thorough pulverization of the soil, that shall successfully compete with the plow, All plows competing for the above premiums, will be required to carry a furrow not less than seven inches deep.

ter.

Excellence in plows for all work and for fallows, will be adjudged to consist: 1st, in easy draft; 2d, thorough pulverization of the soil; 3d, complete inversion and burying of all vegetable matDue consideration will be given to the quality of materials, durability and price of the implement, its susceptibility of accurate adjustment to the required work, and the facility with which its use is acquired by the plowman.

For stiff soils, excellence of work shall consist in thoroughly disposing of the sod and all vegetable matter, and at the same time leaving the furrow slice light and pulverulent.

For light soils, excellence shall consist in the ground being left generally level, and the vegetable matter thoroughly buried.

The reversible, or side-hill plow, will be required to do good work on level land, as well as on side hill.

The Society will make complete preliminary preparations and arrangements, and be provided with an accurate dynamometer for testing the draft; and such other implements, fixtures and appliances, and such teams, as will ensure accurate conclusions by the committee, who will patiently multiply and sufficiently diversify their experiments.'

In order successfully to carry out these regulations, the Trustees made ample efforts to procure the best dynamometers. They succeeded in obtaining the one of Cottam & Hallen's manufacture, of London, which was employed by the committee of the New York State Agricultural Society in their celebrated trial at Albany, in 1850; and also one of Emery's oil-piston dynamometers, similar to the one which was adopted so successfully by the committee of the United States Agricultural Society at the trial of reapers at SyraBoth of these were carefully submitted to a previous test by suspending heavy weights upon them. Cottam & Hallen's being carefully repaired and put in order by A. B. Barnard, of Worcester, its owner, was found to indicate draught with considerable accuracy up to 800 pounds; and Emery's, after being subjected to a stress of over 700 pounds, yielded to the pressure at the sides of the cylinder, causing a more rapid escape of the oil, and consequently proved unreliable beyond that pressure.

cuse.

The dynamometers, although answering the purpose intended in the trials above mentioned, entirely failed when applied to the large

plows of this State. Here, nearly all the heavy plowing is performed by oxen, which are usually of large size and considerable strength, two yokes being commonly used for each plow, and not unfrequently three or four in very heavy breaking up. The large and broad furrows thus turned, compensate in some measure for the slowness of motion. The soil being mostly more or less gravelly, farmers do not favor the practice of lapping furrows (which is effected by narrow and deep slices) but prefer to lay the sod flat, by cutting a width at least twice the depth. When Cottam & Hallen's dynamometer was attached to Kendall & Whitney's "Lion Plow" No. 10, cutting a furrow through a dry and tough sod, seven and a half inches deep and fifteen and a half inches wide, the instrument was found incapable of indicating the amount of draught, which exceeded the highest mark on the graduated scale, and of course it was still less capable of measuring the force required to move larger implements, such, for example, as Kendall & Whitney's "Lion" No. 61, which in the hands of the committee cut a slice 18 inches wide and 9 inches deep. In both these instances two yokes of oxen were attached to the plow. Emery's dynamometer, which indicated the draught approximately when used on the smaller plows, proved of no value on these larger ones, for the reason already assigned. The committee are however, satisfied that carefully constructed, the cylinder bored with great accuracy, and the thickness such that no pressure ever applied will cause it to spring or yield, Emery's would prove a valuable force measurer for the heaviest plows.

These imperfections, and the impossibility, after great exertions on the part of the Trustees, to find any dynamometer now manufactured that would obviate these difficulties, have compelled the Committee with much regret to forego the use of this important and essential test of the relative value of plows--ease of draught, other things being equal, being a quality of high value. For the farmer who can with a good and easy-running plow, invert ten acres of sod, with the same amount of labor or force that with another plow he could invert eight acres, would in a short time save the entire cost of the implement, to say nothing of other considerations.

By a comparison of the dimensions of the plows tried at Albany in 1850, with those which were subjected to the trial here, a striking

average difference in size will be observed, fully accounting for the greater force of draught indicated for the plows of Maine.

Being thus unable to carry out properly the intentions of the Trustees in this trial, which if it could have been perfected, would have conferred most important benefits upon the whole farming community, by assisting in the selection of the best implements in market, the committee have not felt authorized to make any awards of premiums at present; but have confined themselves to a careful trial, side by side, of the different plows presented for experiment, with a view to the commendation of those which have more particularly made excellent work-but of course without any accurate knowledge of the amount of force required for their draught.

In the trial that was made, it is believed that some of the plows of largest size, cutting sod slices over ten inches deep and twenty inches wide, exerted a force not less than fifteen hundred poundsrequiring a size of dynamometer entirely different from any the committee had met with. All the plows were used with two yokes of oxen or with four horses, except the largest plow, which had three yokes of oxen.

Some of the plows did not exhibit their best work, in consequence of the anxiety of the owners to cut a larger furrow than the implement was capable of doing in the most perfect manner.

The furrow slices, wherever their dimensions are given, were carefully and accurately measured by the committee, and the measurements given are sometimes considerably less than those claimed by the owners or applicants.

With scarcely an exception, all the plows tried, although defective on some points, would be regarded as well made and excellent implements, and a credit to the manufacturers.

Description of Plows.

CHANDLER, BROWN & Co., Foxcroft-Foxcroft Plow, Nos. 3 and 4.

The mold-board of this plow is medium in form, neither convex nor concave, and rather straight; it holds easily and does good work; the larger one cuts a slice in plowing sod about 7 inches deep and 15 inches wide, sometimes 8 by 16 inches; the smaller nearly the same dimensions. From the straightness of the mold-board, these